Re: MM Proof Change

Can someone of reasonable expertise explain the following:

- Did they arrive at the 3% dilution cut because at 4% there was a noticeable difference?
- Does the lack of perceivable difference translate across consumption methods? i.e., you may not be able to notice it when drinking neat, but does the same hold when drinking on ice, or mixed in a cocktail?

Re: MM Proof Change

Why not just keep the current bottle size, put a shot or so less in the bottle itself (while noting the actual quantity on the label -- 700ml or whatever; I don't do math on Mondays) and ultimately give the consumer the option to add the water to get to the full 750ml of 84 proof bourbon should s/he choose?

Re: MM Proof Change

I don't care about the environmental stuff (sorry) but this is the way I would like to buy my bourbon. 50cl cask strength. If every distillery started doing this I would feel like a kid in a candy store.

Originally Posted by macdeffe

WHich made me think

The 75cl bottles are going from 56.25cl whisky to 52.50cl whisky

Why don't they just start bottling it all as 50cl cask strength. This will give even more bottles and have a huge enviromental impact as shipping water around the globe is kinda silly seen from an enviromental point of view

Re: MM Proof Change

He supports the decision, and says also that current tastings at Maker's itself for visitors are using the new 42% version. Any Bardstown-area SBers interested in this issue might drop by for a tour - the tour is always great - (Doug Philips if you are reading?) to check it out.

As I read him, Bill says the change in no way affects the taste profile, and that proof in and of itself does not define the whiskey meaning its essential attributes (which is fair enough).

Gary

P.S. This is a long thread and if his message was noted earlier here I'd ask the mods to delete this posting, I wish only to draw attention to the fact that he has said something about this.

Re: MM Proof Change

Prices just went up a few bucks after the new year around here. So now folks will be paying more for less? Also, I don't buy the "scarcity" reason for dilution. I travel and visit about 9-10 of the same states, every year a few times a year. One thing I have never noticed being scarce in any liquor store I visit in any of these states is Maker's, of any size. (The states I visit are in the New England area and the Midwestern part of the US).

Re: MM Proof Change

While the post "feels" genuine, it also sounds like damage control and repeats a lot of what was said in the letter to the brand club. The fact that a post like this is there at all is telling. Just a few minutes of reading out around the internet shows that customers and media are reacting badly.

Maker's Mark has had a very long-running marketing message of not compromising or changing their core product, the one on which their brand is built (and it's not like they've been producing many other products).

Sometimes betraying a years-long marketing message doesn't affect a company negatively at all: I remember years of Jim Koch on Boston-area radio stations, starting right around the initial release of Samuel Adams Lager in 1984, insulting light beer and promising that Boston Beer Co. would never, ever produce a Samuel Adams Light. Yep, never, ever until they released Samuel Adams Light in 2001. It helps that they produce a lot of different and excellent beers, but I remember the brand turn-off I had when the light beer came out. I still avoid Sam Adams unless there's no other decent beer at a bar, and I don't buy it for home. But Boston Brewing Co. remains huge in the market, and their sales haven't suffered from the change.

On the other hand, sometimes companies end up in a "New Coke" situation.

On a personal level, I think Maker's Mark is doing the wrong thing, and I think they're betraying their original product, passion and message. I guess that their corporate ownership hasn't given them a choice about it. I'll probably buy a few bottles at 90 proof to stash in the basement, and then I'll move on to other brands because there are other fine wheaters out there at 90 proof and higher.